Incorporating user experience (UX) designs into your website means that you're taking steps to increase the usability, visibility and sheer pleasure that your customers will get out of interacting with your brand. More user-centric designs actually improve the customer experience that customers have as they navigate your website and apps.This can all sound abstract until you consider the fact that you've probably had vastly different experiences with websites that were optimized with UX designs and those that didn't really factor the user experience into account. Consider Amazon and Netflix - both of those sites make it easy to find the products you're looking for, search through reviews, and take in recommendations on what books or movies to check out next.

Breaking Down User Experience Designs

User experience designs seek to enhance the customer satisfaction that your visitors get from your website.By streamlining your website's ease-of-use and ensuring that customers aren't getting frustrated while searching for products or services, you will achieve customer loyalty to your brand. The overarching aim with UX designs is to foster a stronger connection between your company, the products you sell, and the pleasure that customers get from interacting with your business.

User-centric designs are so important because they can make or mar the success of your e-commerce plan.It will also dictate the volume of return customers that happily make it back to your website. Through studying the interface, interaction patterns, and intuitiveness of your current website or app, and cross-referencing that with actual data on customer satisfaction and ease-of-use scoring, UX designers can make your website far more customer-friendly and a great place to shop.

Both UX and UI Help Visibility

So, what's the difference between UX designs and UI (user interface) designs and how do each relate to customer satisfaction. For starters, both UX and UI designs base the idea that the user experience is the most important overriding factor when it comes to optimizing a website's usability, functionality, and visibility. UX design is a far newer field, though.It takes into account Gestalt psychology and cognitive science to create richer user experiences, intuitive interaction, and higher customer satisfaction. (NetDNA)

As a more established field, UI design is considered a digital field that focuses on leveraging cutting-edge graphic design techniques, cross-device compatibility, and interactive elements to your advantage. Obviously, neither UI design nor UX design is more important than the other when it comes to attracting more repeat customers to your business.

Just consider the fact that a website or app that looks amazing but is impossible for people to actually use (UI > UX) and a website that is extremely usable but doesn't look too hot (UX > UI) are both hindering your brand reach. You need both brains and beauty to get the most out of your website: Customers should be happy with their e-commerce experience and your website should be a favorable mirror of your brand's professionalism. (OneExtraPixel)

UX Designs as a Worthwhile Investment

A large reason why Apple, Amazon, and Facebook are three of the most successful and recognized companies in the world right now is because early on they bought into the idea of user-centric designs. People like going through these websites because they look great and offer a very smooth user experience.

Jeff Bezos, the guru behind Amazon, actually spent 100 times more on bettering his product's user experience than he did on advertising in Amazon's first year of business. Successful companies understand that investing in user-centric designs are the surest way of remaining relevant in the long term and creating the space for repeat customers. This definitely goes beyond a nice thing to do for customers since UX designs also offer the following benefits:

Lower IT support costs

Lower rates of customer acquisition

Higher customer lifetime value

More satisfied customers

More customer retention

More e-commerce business

Higher market share

You can get there by taking regular user assessments and determining how well your websites and apps are performing compared to your competitors. A/B testing websites with slightly different layouts, design elements, and interactive features to determine the best options in terms of customer ease-of-use and sheer functionality can also help you spot problems early before they have a detrimental effect on your business.

It'd actually be ideal to conduct usability tests at different phases of website development, but if your website is already up that's not a problem. Early explorative usability testing can help you spot problems the soonest whereas taking more assessments midway through can improve the effectiveness of your website or app. Lastly, a comparative assessment between two products or between your company and your competitor's can let you know that you really have an edge!

Direct Images Interactive is an inbound marketing agency specializing in high-impact video production and online graphic design. We are centrally located between Oakland, San Francisco and San Jose. Come see us at The Gate in San Leandro, a thriving tech-hub of innovators. What can we do for you?